Linda Wells, widow of Medal of Honor recipient USAF Capt. Steven L. Bennett and the mother of OBA member Angela Bennett-Engele, passed away unexpectedly on Monday, July 11, 2011. Funeral services were held in Keller, TX on July 14th. Our thoughts and prayers are with Tommy, her husband since 1988, her brother and sister, daughter Angela and her son Jake, and Linda's many other family members and friends.

Linda loved books and was a volunteer at a library in Keller, Texas. The family asked that donation be made to Linda's hometown library in Louisiana:

The Bennett family has a special connection to the OV-10 community. As you may know, Linda's first husband and Angela's dad, Capt. Steve Bennett (USAF) was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for choosing to ditch his missile-damaged OV-10 in order to save his USMC observer, Mike Brown, whose ejection seat had been rendered inoperative after a SAM attack over Vietnam. Ditching in a Bronco was known to be extremely dangerous, with a very low probability of the pilot's survival. Brown was able to get out and survived, but Bennett became trapped in the aircraft and drowned before rescuers could get to him. For his heroism in placing his observer's survival ahead of his own, Bennetts family accepted the Medal of Honor on his behalf. To this day, Bennett remains the most recent member of the US Air Force to recieve America's highest honor.